The Bio Silo x Pangaia is a hybrid educational and inspiring journey focused on Bio-Materials and their importance in the fashion and design industry. The site is located in Silvertown, Newham at the abandoned grain “Silo D”, next to the Royal Docks.
The project works in collaboration with Pangaia, a brand known for their ethos to give back to the earth more than they take. They are constantly working to discover and innovate new materials to develop their products and reduce waste. The proposal aims to bring awareness to the importance of bio-materials and innovation.
Spatially, the Bio Silo follows a linear journey which wraps in and out of the building. The space consists of a Pangaia merchandise shop, a grape leather production facility open to explore and produce grape leather for the production of Pangaia’s grape leather trainers, 2 bio-materials workshop labs used to accommodate workshops for visitors to learn about and produce their own bio-materials, a bio-materials library, an immersive grape leather installation, and a biodegradable wall produced from bio-materials extended over the adjacent dock open as a platform to walk and sit on.
My main aspiration for this project was to design an earth positive scheme, I have incorporated circular concepts in my project using waste products from local establishments to give a second life. In the surrounding area there is the Tate & Lyle factory known for their sugar production. Globally for every tonne of sugarcane crushed there is 280kg of by-product also known as bagasse. Therefore, to give life back to the sugar cane waste the back façade of the proposal is created from the bagasse, the bagasse wall panel contains sugar cane seeds which over the course of a year the wall will slowly degrade and regrow into the adjacent dock which will in due course be farmed and sourced back to the Tate & Lyle Factory. In the hopes to encourage circular economy and Bio-Materials.
The Bio Silo x Pangaia is focused on bio-materials, it aims to help build a more sustainable and circular future and inspire innovation in people and the design industry. A scheme that gives back to the earth more than it takes.